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No binaries, no simple opposition. Either/or is subsumed by infinite relations and dizzying possibilities, by the perpetual crest of and/and. Freedom is the key to bring about all complex and incongruous multiplicities. Embodied, embedded, relational freedom is the key.
Mue is a duo based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal composed of Catherine Debard and Léon Lo. Formed in the Spring of 2020, the electronic musical project merges two distinct practices and explores the way they interact with each other. Drawing on early-IDM, illbient, minimalism, and natural phenomena, the resulting real-time hardware improvisations weave asymmetric patterns, create spaces, and digest various sounds.

Recorded in 2020, Les vasières explores unsynchronized hardware electronic impro-visations where individual sonic elements come to life by creating new and complex layers and organizational logics — melodically and rhythmically modulating each other.
The French album title translates to “The mudflats.” Sounds from disparate sources form an aural silt that is brought to life by waxing and waning cycles, each improvi-sation presenting a new, different mudflat scenario.
Mue asked visual artist Katherine Melançon to create the album’s artwork, which was the artist’s first dive into compost as source material. The resulting image—an otherworldly organic smear, both intimate and alien — was incorporated into graphic designer Haley Parker’s montage, hard frames recalling the flatbed scanner used by Melançon, and branch-like typography nodding to the organic concerns of all the artists involved.

Eraserhood Sound's intergalactic house band Fantasy 15 delivers yet another masterful slice of futuristic synth-funk, this time in the form of the Galaxy Oasis / Julieta 7". Both tracks are from the Planet IX EP, a dazzling collection of songs which touches on soul, funk, boogie, hip hop, and New Wave. "Galaxy Oasis" is the group's first single with a proper lead vocal, provided by a local from the group's native planet Zoltandia. Its infectious groove and soaring melodies will be sure to keep dance floors packed for millennia to come. Listen close to the vocals, and you will hear a contemplative lyric about what it means to be human and experience true ecstasy in an increasingly cold, digital universe. Flipside "Julieta" is perfect for after the club, with its brooding drums, menacing guitar, and cinematic flutes.

Ayahuasca: Music for Film, by Luis David Aguilar (1978-1983) compiles works by Luis David Aguilar, one of the most prolific composers of film scores in Peru. It shows the great versatility and avant-garde style that has distinguished his work. Luis David Aguilar (Arequipa, 1950) occupies a fundamental place in the history of film music in Peru, not only because of the prolific nature of his work (which also includes music for television and advertising), but because of the singular, experimental style found in many of his scores. Aguilar's music blends modern academic composition with the use of native instruments, synthesizers, sound collages and a diversity of resources, which identify him as a key figure to understand a period of Peruvian music marked by the imprint of the avant-garde and the use of native sounds, which developed during the late 70's and the early 80's. Aguilar belongs to the so called "Generation of the 70's", along with Peruvian composers such as Walter Casas, Seiji Asato and Aurelio Tello, who were then immersed in the languages of contemporary classical music. But he also shares the spirit of renewal of a generation of musicians who came from the world of jazz and electronic experimentation such as Manongo Mujica and Arturo Ruiz del Pozo. Ayahuasca is an album that collects pieces from 1978 to 1983 and offers an overview of the different musical paths that Aguilar followed during his career as a soundtrack composer. The album opens with music from the film El viento del ayahuasca The Wind of Ayahuasca (1983), by director Nora de Izcue, performed by the National Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Cuba under the baton of Luis David Aguilar, with Chucho Valdés on piano. Recorded at the ICAIC studios (Cuba), it is an ambitious orchestral and vocal composition, in which you can hear the beginning of the famous melody of "Mujer Hilandera" [Female Weaver], popularized by the Amazonian cumbia group Juaneco y su Combo, which serves as an introduction to the sound world of the jungle, a dense and hypnotic atmosphere that, without a doubt, places this work as one of the most important compositions of the author's repertoire. The next track is the music for the documentary Anónimo cotidiano [Anonymous Everyday] (1979), by director Jorge Rey, a unique experimental piece for synthesizers (played by Aguilar), drums and percussion (played by Manongo Mujica), with the addition of various Andean instruments (panpipes, charango, among others). It is a clear example of fusion of sound experimentation and timbres from the Andean world. And finally Los constructores [The Builders] (1978), by director José Carlos Huayhuaca, a salsa which incorporates unusual sounds of tubular bells and prepared pianos. Ayahuasca: Music for Film by Luis David Aguilar (1978-1983) is the second album by Aguilar released by Buh Records, following the celebrated Hombres de Viento/Venas de la Tierra (1978-1982), appeared in 2015. The album is published in vinyl format, in a limited edition of 300 copies, as part of the Essentials Sounds collection. It includes a booklet with notes by Luis David Aguilar. The audio has been remastered from the original reel tapes by Aldo Montalvo. The artwork and design is by About Studio.

CoOp Presents is incredibly proud to present an all-new compilation album put together by Allysha Joy. This 14-track LP gives us a solid glimpse into the current wave of Antipodean bruk / broken beat artists.

Allysha explains "the connection began with a guest mix for CoOp Presents Worldwide FM radio show. I was asked to guest on the show, so pulled together some heavy unreleased and unmastered "Australian" broken sounds. I immediately called Horatio, Close Counters and Setwun, some of my nearest and dearest inspirations and collaborators to get them in the mix! Within 24 hours I had a brand new beat from Setwun called 'H.B.Y', I ran up some vocals on a Close Counters track and landed a wild jazz-bruk collaboration called 'Fly' from Horatio Luna and Nikodimos! We all felt really blessed to be linking in with some of the innovators of the sound we love!

Also in the mix, I played a track by Lanu a.k.a Lance Ferguson, one of "Australia's" funkiest songwriters and producers. Mike Gurrieri and Chris Gill over at Northside Records had already been scheming to set Lance and I up on a music date for weeks, which turned into writing 'Rewind' . Lanu, along with Ennio Styles, have been integral in the broken beat sound down here from the early 2000s and they connected Jonny Faith in to bring 'Southern Stepper'.

After linking in over the music and working on some collaborations, Alex Phountzi and IG Culture asked me to put together this compilation. The first person that came to mind was Sampology. A wild ride of shifting harmony and incredible vocals, Sam delivered 'Sunny', featuring Maia. Also of Middle Name Dance Band acclaim and a beaming light of creative energy, Kuzko created 'Immunity' for the comp — their debut solo release!

Also up in Meanjin, Special Feelings and Squidgenini were making their own style of jazzy house music and we absolutely knew that they would kill it on the broken beat tip. They sent through 'On Heat' and 'Prophecy' respectively, and inspired me to write and produce 'Listen'. A track about the struggle to be heard as female and non-binary artists. A hard-hitter mixed by co-collaborator Yelderbert of our new duo project, Totek.

As my brother and the one that first introduced me to Agent K, I knew we had to get Ziggy Zeitgeist up in the mix! He immediately sent over a bunch of tunes, and from alongside all of the 30/70 Collective demo drum loops and fresh Z.F.E.X sounds, we selected 'Bruk Samba' featuring Cody Curry, the CC Dance Orchestra.

I had managed to pull together a bunch of tunes for the compilation and after a studio session one afternoon I was walking down Sydney Road and bumped into Silent Jay, Alien and A.KID a.k.a. ACID SLOP at their new spot, the Mandarin Dreams HQ. We were just chatting and above Jay's head I spotted the New Sector Movements record, 'Download This'! To see that they'd just been spinning this record felt so serendipitous, so I had to ask them to be on it! Acid Slop sent me through a tune literally the next day, called 'Everything Falls Apart' and within the week we got 'Walk Away', from Lori and Silent Jay. It felt complete.

The way that this music just effortlessly and lyrically fell together, is a testament to the broken beat undercurrent that runs within the jazz and dance music scene down-under. 'They're Energised' connects a scene of deeply talented and inspired musicians, collectively shaping the new wave of uniquely "Australian" bruk and broken beat music!"

'They're Energised' is released mid-November 2022 on double vinyl and digital worldwide via CoOp Presents.

RAMZi's 'hyphea', the new album by Montreal based artist Phoebé Guillemot. It is her latest sonic quest containing 10 new tracks, of which some are versions of the score she made for a documentary about mushrooms called 'Fun Fungi' (directed by Frederic Lavoie).

Recorded between November 2021 and May 2022, writing 'hyphea' started off somewhat as an attempt to escape boredom and frustrations imposed by the severe restrictions during the pandemic. For Phoebé it was a way to reconnect with RAMZi who's spirit brought her back to mystical feelings and gave hope for future magical adventures after having felt disconnected for a while.

RAMZi is a wild spirit from the forest and refers to a parallel autonomous world that keeps evolving. In her own words: “The music remains as a doorway to that world. It has never been about me, I always see that entity bigger than myself. The process of writing 'hyphea' was rather intuitive. I don’t think about styles of music before producing tracks. Those are more like an adventure in itself, each one set in a different ecosystem.”

Artwork by Marinka Grondel.

Jackson Ryland comes in focused and ecstatic with his first vinyl release under his technoid alias JR2K. Jackson is based in Washington DC as one-half of both Superabundance and Rush Plus. He’s recently released on Peach Discs and Pleasant Life, showcasing his knack for presenting energy as a delicacy. JR2K “Walking Backward” is another illustrious highlight in the savvy DC producer’s already-accomplished underground career. Played on Hör Radio by Kush Jones and supported by Peach, Ciel, Clarisa Kimskii, Ryan Elliott, CMD, Davis Galvin, livwutang, Furtive, Golden Medusa, Lychee, Miley Serious, and Jialing!

The A side opens up whooshy and hard with “ExoGeni Approach”. This illustrates perfectly what I love about Jackson’s style(s)...it sounds like the sickest mid-90s techno track, full of energy and movement while taking in the atmosphere with repose. After the rollercoaster intro, the acidic up-ticks, lush synth layering, and perfectly crunchy closed-hats sink your ass straight through the dance-floor to tumbling free-for-all in the green-screen collage of your daydreams. Wake up…A2 “Call Back” splashes you with a glass of refreshing water…you still got hours at the party, and you’re coming up on some healthE shit…time to get back to that business of dancing your soles and soul away to this driving monorail of euphoric acidic techno. Choo choo choose your own dance destiny, baby!

Dopeness Galore / Records We Release
"A newfound father's attempt to pass wisdom on to his children."

- Spring 2019 -

"As my girlfriend’s pregnancy was steadily treading along, I settled into my home studio in the attic of our new house. In our previous apartment I had a tiny room which could hardly fit my recording gear, let alone my drums which were still sitting at my parents’ house eating dust. Now that we’d moved into a bigger place, I had confiscated a part of the top floor to build my studio. This time I had just enough space to fit my drum set together with other percussion instruments, Fender Rhodes and synths. This sparked a whole new world of creative opportunities.

At the same time I also started to think about what kind of wisdom I would want to pass on to my children. I started writing down my thoughts. Little anecdotes, ponderings and things to think about as a human being.

These two events took place in parallel and once I actually started jotting down my first compositional ideas I saw the concept right there in front of me bright as day.

This LP has been written and recorded as inspiration to think about things and to keep re-thinking again and again to strengthen the knowledge of self.

Fruit Distro Collective is heavily inspired by Jazz composition, Hiphop drum sounds and the percussive elements of Afrobeat and Afro latin styles. "

Back in stock !

First Word Records is very proud to present a brand new full-length album from Kaidi Tatham. 'It's A World Before You'.

Following on from two EPs released on First Word last year ('Changing Times' and 'Hard Times'), Kaidi has delivered us thirteen tracks that deftly illustrate his various talents as a multi-instrumentalist.

Kaidi is probably best known for his work with Bugz In The Attic, though his musical contributions over the years have also included Amy Winehouse, Slum Village, Mulatu Astatke, Soul II Soul, Moonchild, Leroy Burgess, Amp Fiddler, Chris Dave, Macy Gray, King Britt, DJ Spinna, Mr Scruff and IG Culture to name but a few! In recent times, he's worked with DJ Jazzy Jeff on a variety of projects, including his most recent album 'M3', touring Europe for Jeff and Will Smith's reunion shows, and on the PLAYlist album 'Chasing Goosebumps', with Glenn Lewis, Stro Elliot (The Roots), Masego, Maimouna Youssef, Rich Medina, Daniel Crawford and more.

All this in addition to heating up dances around Europe with his inimitable DJ sets, and working heavily with First Word label-mate, Eric Lau (who also mixed this album) on a variety of projects, and adding releases to his already impressive catalogue on 2000 Black, Eglo and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature, with regular compadre, Dego (who features on the album's title track).

This album personifies Kaidi's diverse palette of sounds - bar Eric & Dego's features, every piece of music is played by himself. Largely flowing on a broken beat rhythm section, Kaidi effortlessly incorporates washes of afro, latin and funk throughout. From the harmonics of 'Your Dream Don't Mean A Thing', to the breakneck funk of 'Outta Audah', each and every riddim exudes energy. But this isn't simply a bruk record. The album is laced together with downtempo beats and future jazz interludes throughout, and some sweet synth boogie is never very far away, especially on the weighty vibes of 'It's About Who You Know'. To top it all off, there's two delightful nuggets of hip hop soul - Mancunian label-mates, Children of Zeus, feature on the neo-soul vibes of 'Out Here On My Own', and there's a feature from Amir Townes, better known as Uhmeer - an upcoming MC from Philadelphia, and son of one Jazzy Jeff Townes - who rides a sub-heavy, piano-led slice of boom bap, voicing an assortment of characters to tell the tale of 'Cupid'.

'It's A World Before You' is set to cause serious damage to sound-systems over the Summer, and show and prove once again the skills of one of the UK's best unsung musical talents, Kaidi Tatham.

LP including booklet with extended liner notes. Channeling wild seventies Impulse vibes, even resonating the guts of early Art Ensemble of Chicago and the tempering spirit of Max Roach's 'We Insist' era: BRAHJA is soul searching their spirit on 'Watermelancholia'.

Devin Brahja Waldman is a New York saxophonist, drummer, synthesizer player and composer who leads the group BRAHJA. Waldman has accompanied his aunt, poet Anne Waldman, since the age of ten. Waldman is a co-founding member of Radical Reversal, Diva of Deva Loka, and Notable Deaths. He has performed with Patti Smith, William Parker, Nadah El Shazly, Malcolm Mooney, Thurston Moore, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Charles Hayward, Luke Stewart and Yoshiko Chuma. Waldman is also a member of NYC's Heroes Are Gang Leaders (led by poet Thomas Sayers Ellis and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis), of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush, and of the Norwegian hardcore group MoE.

As a youngster, Waldman was taken under the wing of avant-garde giant Paul Bley. Along with Anne Waldman and cousin Ambrose Bye, Waldman is a co-producer for Fast Speaking Music -a NYC poetry and music label which has released recordings with Amiri Baraka, Meredith Monk, William Parker, Laurie Anderson, Eileen Myles, CAConrad, Fred Moten, Daniel Carter, Clark Coolidge, Thurston Moore, Joanne Kyger and many others.

Ancient to the future 2.0

Watermelancholia is about the law of Karma:
a law so obvious that it often goes unspecified and ignored.
Neglecting this law invites a world of chaos.
It's been articulated in endless ways.
Some have called it Cosmic Law or Natural Law.
Others translate it as Do No Harm.

(liner notes excerpt)

The moment the first bass note of Luke Stewart kicks in on 'Watermelancholia', followed by the swelling drum roll of Malick Koly and the lush leading voice of Janice Lowe you feel Devin Brahja will take you on a deep mind-blowing spiritual journey.


Channeling wild seventies Impulse vibes on 'O.P.K' or, could we say, even resonating the guts of early Art Ensemble of Chicago and the tempering spirit of Max Roach's 'We Insist' era: BRAHJA is soul searching their spirit on 'Watermelancholia'.


A poetic stream of consciousness, backboned by top-notch musicians, transcending the cosmic universe, trying to find answers and musically connecting.


Watermelancholia is a meditation on healing the inner schism between the sense of self - the ego - and the inner being. It is about bringing the ego to justice; putting it on trial, as it were.

Limited Orange/Blue Galaxy Vinyl

So we wanted to go back in to Westbeach with Donnell, but it turns out now he"s in rehab, and obviously is in no shape to record us. So Mr. Brett tells me to call his friend Ryan Greene. So I call Ryan and he records what is probably our best record. It turns out Ryan has really long hair and knows a lot of metal bands, but he"s pretty cool anyway. We record at Westbeach, but mix at EMI. This record takes about 3 weeks, which is about as long as we"ve ever spent on any record. We had a bunch of weird people come in to play steel drums and flaminco guitar and stuff. We covered a Mark Curry song too, which a lot of people don"t know. ("Perfect Government") . This record turned out to be our best selling record. Without any radio or video play, it ended up going gold. Pretty neat. -NOFX

I'm talkin' about Beatmasters, but not the late 80s crew that saw collaborations with the Cookie Crew etc, I'm talking about the legendary Bristol beatmaster Boca 45 who has mastered, honed and polished his creative techniques and his distillation of beat making over the last 25+ years. Born out of hip hop and rooted firmly in the Bristol scene of Massive, Wild Bunch, and Portishead, Boca 45 aka Scott Hendy has successfully navigated an ever changing musical landscape with an unwavering connection and honest adherence to those very roots and ethics. It's what makes Bristol such a special place for art of all forms in the city, a DIY, earthy and passionate sound and vision that runs through all the artists that call Bristol home.
And so it continues with Boca's only 45 release this year in ‘22. It’s strictly Limited to 300 copies on High Quality Yellow wax with each copy stamped & numbered.
On this Bomb Donut he teams up with NYC Native Tongue OG Bam of The Jungle Brothers on hype vocals duties for 2 dancefloor burners.
The A side '(Do It) Fluid' goes straight for the jugular with an immediate phat rubbery bassline that precedes a beat that charges and swings between 4 to the floor and wild breaks. Everything else within the track is supporting that drum & bass, heaping bucket loads of flavour into the mix. And to make it even more tasty, the arrangement is a clear 'DJs Choice', eminently cut-able, mixable, and double up-able! The intention of this (and the flip) is most definitely to stick 'nasty faces' on everyone on the dancefloor.
So if you weren't already bleeding from a torn jugular from the A side, then the B side is going to do some serious damage to what is left of your vascular system. Picking up the tempo with a heavy-duty breakbeat that drives ever forward, 'Another Dimension' is peppered with fuzzed up riffs, Bam's hype vocals, and spacy flourishes. The result is a blistering dancefloor nugget heavily laden with urgency and vigour that DJs, dancers and breakdancers alike will be seriously wigging and poppin' out to. Ultimately these are classic Boca productions, full of the energy and verve we all know and love, honest, funky, raw, they have it all.
Both tracks are a step up from cut-and-paste, yet that ethic is loud and proud throughout (and has been a trademark of Boca's beats over the years).
It's perfectly reasonable to predict that this 45 will be going straight into the play crates of DJs across the world. And you can quote me on that.

What can you say about Sisters that hasn’t been said already? Well what about “Now featuring 2 bonus songs produced by Elvis Costello”? That’s not been said before for sure.
The band were never perfectly happy with the version of “Everybody’s Somebodys Fool” which opens the album and have thus chosen to replace this with a different (more bluebells) version and we will be including - for the first time - the Elvis Costello produced “Aim In Life” and “Some Sweet Day”
The album will feature new liner notes and some updated art - whilst remaining your favourite sister of all.

The origins of Cos date back to the second half of the sixties when Daniel Schell joined forces with Jean-Paul Musette, Pascale Son and Robert Pernet to form Classroom. When Classroom split, Daniel Schell and Pascale Son moved ahead and formed Cos together with Charles Loos, Alain Goutier and Bob Dartsch. They produced an experimental jazz rock sound linked to the influences above mentioned, but without being mere copycats since they always managed to keep to their own personality.



Babel was Cos' third long playing release, issued in 1978. It represented a new step in the band's evolution with the addition of new influences that ranged from musique dodécaphonique, minimalist droning, or even a hint of disco, without turning their backs to their earlier love for Canterbury sounds or more conventional jazz-rock. Dirk Bogaert, Francis Cahen and Marc Moulin all played in its sessions, making this a superb sample of what was going on through the Belgian music scene in those days.



The Wah Wah reissue comes housed in a beautiful reproduction of the original sleeve. Limited edition of 500 copies, licensed from and with the collaboration of Daniel Schell.

• Sony Masterworks is happy to announce the vinyl release of the Netflix live-action series Cowboy Bebop which premiered in November 2021 and is available on Netflix.

• Yoko Kanno and the band SEATBELTS, the artists behind the music in the original anime series of Cowboy Bebop, have returned to bring their signature dynamic, jazzy sound to the Netflix live-action show. The resulting compositions are characters themselves - constant companions to the crew of the Bebop and brimming with just as much personality.

• Cowboy Bebop (Soundtrack from the Netflix Original Series) is a treat for Bebop fans in an additional way - it features over twenty new tracks only available on vinyl! This wide release is pressed on red marble vinyl discs in a gatefold jacket with printed inner sleeves.

• COWBOY BEBOP is an action-packed space Western about three bounty hunters, aka “cowboys,” all trying to outrun the past. As different as they are deadly, Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) form a scrappy, snarky crew ready to hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals — for the right price. But they can only kick and quip their way out of so many scuffles before their pasts finally catch up with them.

• Original anime series director Shinichirō Watanabe is a consultant on the series, and original composer Yoko Kanno returns for the live-action adaptation. The series also stars Alex Hassell and Elena Satine.


• Yoko Kanno is a Japanese composer, arranger and musician best known for her work on the soundtracks of anime films, television series, live-action films, video games, and advertisements. She has written scores for Cowboy Bebop and its live-action adaptation, Darker than Black, Macross Plus, Turn A Gundam, The Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Wolf's Rain, Kids on the Slope, Genesis of Aquarion and Terror in Resonance, and has worked with the directors Hirokazu Kore-eda, Yoshiyuki Tomino, Shinichirō Watanabe and Shōji Kawamori. Kanno has also composed music for pop artists Maaya Sakamoto and Kyōko Koizumi. She is also a keyboardist and is the frontwoman for the SEATBELTS, who perform many of Kanno's compositions and soundtracks.

"I was 27 when this album came out, LA was a whole different animal. I was going back and forth from NY to LA, touring a lot and trying to make progress for me and my close friends and family.

Oct 1 2002 seems like it was yesterday... The day we released the album, I got a call from Nas, completely caught me off guard. He complemented me on the writing of “Release Date” the first track on the album. Those are some of the moments I think of when I reminisce about dropping this project. It was such a turning point in my life, I was coming off of a huge push with “Restless” and the follow up had to be a smash, at the same time I was still finding my standing as a man, a young father, and an artist. It was always my dream to work with the people I’ve now been able to work with and I can listen to this album and remember exactly where I was and who I was with, it’s like time travel.

Fast forward 20 years later and I am thrilled to be able to share this body of work with you and more generations to come.

Thank you for rockin' with me for all this time.
Enjoy the 20th Anniversary Edition of MAN VS MACHINE,

From its dramatic intro, "Release Date," to the thundering West Coast march "Enemies," Xzibit's fourth and mythical album, Man vs. Machine produced by no less than Dr Dre, spent a total of 19 weeks on the "Billboard" 200 chart and was certified gold only a month after its release with over 500,000 copies sold.

The legendary album that features a heavyweight cast of featurings with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Eminem, M.O.P, Nate Dogg, DJ Premier and Dr Dre himself is now available for the first time since its original release, to celebrate its 20th anniversary!

















[q] D3. My Life, My World [Bonus Track]
[r] D4. What a Mess [Bonus Track]
[s] D5. (Hit U) Where It Hurts [Bonus Track]

Classic Nas instrumentals combined on a 2LP, including tracks from his very first LP "Illmatic" as well as bunch of classic cuts like "Affirmative Action", "Hate Me Now" or "Nas Is Like".

Big Zen makes his entrance on Mood Hut records with Prayer Bass, a freely focused collection of euphoric funk-splashed club-cuts from the much-loved Vancouver underground legend. Those who have seen him play at free parties in the park or at the many under-cover basements of Vancouver City will already know what Prayer Bass is all about.

After many sessions and years of friendship both on and off the dance floor we are pleased to finally work with Big Zen. Following up his recently self-released 'Mirror Cut' 12" here Big Zen continues to swim out into the technicolour deep: Prayer bass is purple, Sugar Coated is frosty cream, Cash Splash is lightning blue, Rumble Ball is tangerine.


Dj support from Shanti Celeste, Hunee, Titonton Duvante, Bradley Zero, Ron Like Hell, Giant Swan, Anthony Naples

Deniz Cuylan set out to explore his own distinctive sound on his 2021 solo debut album 'No Such Thing As Free Will.' The album signaled the Turkish musician's first bold step into the spotlight following a winding 15-year path in the music industry playing in multiple bands with home bases dotted all over the globe - Stockholm, NYC, Istanbul - and tackling a wide array of styles both on the stage and in the studio. Now settled into his current home in Los Angeles, Deniz lends his instrumental talents to create scores for independent films and recurring Netflix original series, yet these projects inevitably fulfill the sonic backdrop for another artist's vision. Looking inward on his own for the first time, 'No Such Thing As Free Will' laid the groundwork for his own personal soundtrack, one that fused his love of classical guitar, introspective jazz, and ambient expressionism with his whimsical compositional ear. Over a magical 6-track journey, 'No Such Thing As Free Will' painted a lush cinematic narrative with Deniz's guitar as its guide, delivering an album that "seems to invent new languages for the guitar" (The Guardian) and receiving glowing comparisons to legends like Steve Reich, The Durutti Colum's Vini Reilly, Glenn Branca, and Bert Jansch. With such a singular foundation exposed on a debut album, many artists would stay true to their inventive winning formula and find out if lightning could strike twice. Deniz is not one of those artists. An explorer at heart, Deniz unveils a beautifully alluring and lightly adjusted language on his mesmerizing second album 'Rings Of Juniper.' The record continues to spotlight Deniz's exquisite guitar work and hypnotic compositional skills, yet it boasts a punchier, refined, and more immediate tone right from the start. Accented by a desire to once again uncover a new shade of his sonic palette with the support of a talented cast of friends and artistic collaborators, 'Rings Of Juniper' lays bare a rich, dynamic, and evocative sound that Deniz lovingly refers to as Mediterranean Minimalism.

KU is proud to celebrate a powerful moment in hip-hop history, in which the underground found space amongst the mainstream.
20 plus years ago, Dilated Peoples dropped their first studio album, ‘The Platform’. The Los Angeles-based group was composed of legendary Beat Junkies member, DJ Babu, staple underground and prolific emcee, Evidence, and fellow Los Angeles-based rapper, Rakaa.

The crew formed in the early 90s, exploring their craft and dynamic for many years before making their imprint known and gaining the attention of Capitol Records, who’d eventually put out ‘The Platform’ in the year 2000.

Mainstream Hip Hop and specifically the greater Los Angeles area radio during those years was inundated with West Coast Gangster Rap. Dilated Peoples offered a different look for the genre, steering away from celebrating gun violence and misogyny. Stepping into the light with notes of positivity, boosting one another up, thought-out observations about social issues, and catharsis.

KU is celebrating the influential group with a replica 45” repressing, of the title track from ‘The Platform’. The track hit #22 on the US rap charts in 2000, and #89 in the UK. “The Platform” was produced by the aforementioned, The Alchemist.

Classic Black Vinyl repress in soon note new price. LP with DL card. “a songwriter testing the limits of her sound and redefining herself in the process” - Pitchfork // “Rundle’s voice floats above the seething morass, graceful and triumphant, an angel welcoming the apocalypse” Stereogum // The cover to Emma Ruth Rundle’s fourth solo record, On Dark Horses, bears a blurry photo of the songwriter obscuring her face with a large toy horse with broken legs. The photo suggests something candid but also hidden, graceful but also fractured a fitting portrait for an artist who has established a career by vacillating between shrouding herself in mystery and exposing her wounds to the world. The first peek behind the curtain came with her Sargent House debut Some Heavy Ocean, where layers of distortion were excised in favor of acoustic guitar and Rundle’s beguiling vocals. There was a distinct difference by the time Rundle released Marked For Death, a stark and deeply personal meditation on mortality and self-destructive behavior. Her entire musical trajectory from the cinematic instrumentals of Red Sparowes to the lush haze of Marriages and onward through her solo career seems like a gradual disclosure of intimate secrets. With On Dark Horses, Rundle doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable realities or retreat into a private world, but it does capture an artist who has survived their personal nadir and come out stronger on the other side. Taking the full arrangements of Marked For Death on the road demanded a backing band, which Rundle pieced together from tour companions first Dylan Nadon from Wovenhand and Git Some and later Evan Patterson and Todd Cook from Jaye Jayle. Rundle’s budding romance with Patterson prompted a move to Louisville, Kentucky, which not only amplified the equestrian themes of the record but also yielded a new writing process. “This the first time I haven’t played all the guitars on my own record,” Rundle says of Patterson’s contributions to the writing process. “It was stressful letting go but it was also rewarding.” The collaboration worked both ways, with Rundle contributing to Jaye Jayle’s No Trails and Other Unholy Paths. That album’s “Marry Us” mirrors On Dark Horses’ “Light Song”, with the union of Rundle’s siren vocals and Patterson’s poised baritone conjuring a dizzying and feverish update on the duets of Johnny Cash and June Carter. The eight tracks of On Dark Horses capture the evolution of Rundle as an artist, with vestigial traces of the savvy guitar work of Electric Guitar: One, the siren song beauty of Some Heavy Ocean, and the amplified urgency of Marked For Death all factoring into the album’s rich tapestry. Rundle arrives at the end of the album with an ode to a traumatized and heartbroken friend on the grand and triumphant “You Don’t Have To Cry”. After laboring over the majority of the material for the album, she wrote the finale in one sitting, describing its easy birth as a gift from the gods. It’s a fitting closer, a song announcing Rundle’s newfound hope and reminding us to take control during our darkest moments instead of succumbing to them. Track Listing: 1 Fever Dreams 2 Control 3 Darkhorse 4 Races 5 Dead Set Eyes 6 Light Song 7 Apathy on the Indiana Border 8 You Don’t Have to Cry

NOT EXPORTABLE TO France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Greece, Balkans. "Center. The name may define the furtive action of search engines, but it says plenty about the music made by this trio, whose members reside in New Haven, Connecticut. Stefan Christensen, Ian McColm, and Dave Shapiro make music so weighty that it generates its own gravity, and yet transparent enough to see straight through to its center. They have arrived at a sound located within a matrix of possibilities suggested by their many shared and separate ventures. It is the sonic orb around which Christensen's post-Xpressway analog alchemy; Shapiro's expositions of acoustic guitar expressivity under the name Alexander and as an accompanist for Kath Bloom, McColm's generation of pulsing freedom as the drummer for Heart of the Ghost and diverse improvisational ensembles, Shapiro and Christensen's unification of historically sound psychedelic practices from either side of the Pacific Ocean as part of Headroom, and McColm and Shapiro's explorations of electric guitar turbulence in Nagual all turn. If you were to search for Center's generative root, you'd find it in Nagual. Christensen first joined the duo in 2016, first as a deputy, and ultimately a full member. Their improvisations acquired a quieter, more spacious character. This transformation necessitated a new name, and they have been working towards completing this LP ever since. While all of the music on Over The Stations originated spontaneously, it has been subjected to centrifugal forces of evaluation and collective debate in order to distill the trio's essence. Modulated chimes, squeezebox respirations, strategic drum beats, humid reeds, and pond-dwelling synth voices augment what is essentially a stringed instrument trio. Listen in, and listen deep. - Bill Meyer" TRACKLIST: "A1 Over The Stations A2 The Empty Gesture A3 10 / 10 Sky A4 White Pine Oval A5 Modern Heights A6 Birds Fall From The Dam B1 Door 5-4 B2 Pysyvä"

Acclaimed Brooklyn artist Bird Streets has returned with Lagoon, an album about separation, rumination, regret, and recurrence. For his second album under the Bird Streets name, John Brodeur has widely expanded on the project’s collaborative foundation, enlisting production b Patrick Sansone (Wilco), Michael Lockwood (Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple), and Zach Jones (Sting) and Oscar Albis Rodriguez (A Great Big World), plus guest appearances from the likes of Aimee Mann, Ed Harcourt, John Davis (Superdrag), Jody Stephens (Big Star), and an array of top-shelf session players. With mixing split between Sansone and Grammy winner Michael Brauer (Coldplay, John Mayer), and mastering by Grammy nominee Pete Lyman (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton), Lagoon is an enormous step forward from an artist who has been hailed or his evocative storytelling and keen attention to craft. Producer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Sansone helmed sessions in Nashville (“Burnout”, “Leave No Trace”, the bossa-flavored “The Document”) and later in Memphis, where he and Brodeur were joined by John Davis on guitar and Jody Stephens on drums, forming a power-pop fantasy band of sorts. (“Machine”, “Go Free”, and wistful “SF 1993” come from the Memphis dates.) Back in Brooklyn, Brodeur cut several tracks with the production team of Zach Jones and Oscar Albis Rodriguez, including “Ambulance,” the catchy AM Gold of “Let You Down,” and the Last Waltz-styled soul-rock of “Disappearing Act.” When the pandemic threw a wrench in the works, Brodeur turned to Los Angeles-based producer Michael Lockwood to remotely helm Lagoon’s final stretch. Track listing: Sleeper Agent; Machine; Burnout; The Document; Let You Down; Leave No Trace; SF 1993; Ambulance; Disappearing Act; On Fire; Unkind; Go Free

Portland's premiere purveyors of kraut-inflected party rock return with an
album's worth of tunes crammed into an extended playing set
The eponymous lead track bursts out of the gate with ebullience. Lee Ritter's
rhythms and Cord Amato's riffs fit comfortably in the space where Kraftwerk left
off and DEVO began. "Artificial Head" may be about a Fleshlight, or it could be a
paperback sci-fi-derived weed fantasy. You could listen to Møtrik while sober, but
why would you do that? Next up is the measured and groovy "Castle Electric"
which features a dialog between bassist/vocalist Erik Golts and a sexy computer.
His German is easily as good as her English and one wonders how the night
ended after she switched the lights "auf." Side one completes with "Unifox" built
up from a Dave Fulton synth composition into a full- fledged Møtrik track, this
being the first time the band has bucked its contrarian vision of a band that jams
in its own professional recording studio yet refuses to produce itself. "Outer
Reaches" is the patiently awaited sidelong epic. The contemplative and
exploratory scene begins with chirrups from an analog swamp, then slowly rises
through the hazy pastel atmosphere on a crystalline bubble before blasting off
into full- fledged Floydian outer space psych. As always, Møtrik colors between
the lines, applying its overall aesthetic to rock music, which is to say it's the
FORTRAN approach to basement partying. Artificial Head is just what your body
needs to feel complete. Pressed on Light Green Color vinyl.

Florence Cats is a poet, visual artist, sound composer, performer and acupuncturist. Born in Vilvoorde (Belgium) in 1985, she is currently living and working where Brussels merges with the Sonian forest.

Florence Cats’ working process involves things about to appear or disappear, and echo one another : air, light, wind, tone, print, voice, water, color, dust, junk, rumor… She creates eclectic pieces related to travel, porosity, natural energies and celestial events. Each proposal is in tune to a context, a space, an environment.

Ys is a generous debut. Raw, courageous.

Sunken Cathedral is Florence interpreting Claude Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie (trans. the Sunken Cathedral). The track reminds me of one of those fabled Charles Ives home recordings. Where he records himself on Speak-O-Phone - an old brand of recordable aluminium phonograph discs - while practicing and composing his music. But unlike Charles Ives treating these home recordings as personal sketches, Florence Cats shares her captured moments as compositions for the public.

Similar to the Speak-O-Phone recordings, we now meet the piano as a physical expression - not as an archetype. We are together with Florence in a room. The pedal. The keys. The hiss of the room. Learn, repeat.

Trough Florence’s hands and feet, La Cathédrale Engloutie is brought out of its pupa stage to become a presence. Instead of being grounded in luxurious concert halls or on high end recordings, the piece is now natural. Sunken Cathedral is a template, an affirmation for amateurs.

The piece was originally created for the group exhibition "Here Comes the Wave” at Project(ion) room, Brussels, February 2020.

In Fall Call, we find ourselves at QO2, a sound art initiative in Brussels. This piece was captured during a residency Florence took over the summer of 2022. We listen to the moment when a summer storm just washed the city.

Fall Call is a testament to Florence’s magical - humanistic way of playing her custom-made theremin. By pushing the controls of the instruments so high, her whole body starts to control the instrument - instead of just her hands. So when she walks around in the room, the instrument answers in full color.

And then, a phone-call. Giving it a bit of a Poulenc vibe.

For the last piece, Drop Out, we find ourselves in Florence’s apartment. When Florence opens the windows, the ambience of the surrounding Sonian Forest seeps in. This is an adorable moment. It predicts new beginnings. The smell of wet dirt and dripping leaves in the air. The poetry of rain.

Jon K and Elle Andrews’ MAL imprint returns with a new LP from one of the London experimental underground's best kept secrets, Rory Salter aka Malvern Brume. His music is rare, eccentric and mysterious - somewhere between Coil's bleak ritual magick and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's most experimental, minimal fringes. 

Malvern Brume operates just beneath the radar, occasionally turning up at Café OTO lineups and on a smattering of releases for Low Company, Alter, Infant Tree and Kasual Plastik - but he’s never one to shout too loudly about his work. ‘Body Traffic’ is his most interesting set to date, laying bare a process melting found sounds, field recordings and spoken word into throbbing, pulsing rhythms. It’s an evocation of a fraught mindset during the early weeks of lockdown in 2020; sequestered in his flat next to a trainline, the infrasonic - and more audible - rumbles of rolling stock and a nagging sense of dread infecting his ambiguously discomfiting recordings.

Operating in a headspace that values world-building and vivid, visual emotionality, Salter’s careful melodies are familiar - the distant, weeping melancholia of 1970s British TV hangs off the recordings like net curtains, and his atmosphere loops into experiments that weave through bare traces of industrial music, blank-faced electro pop, and hedonistic Brummie techno, all reduced to a cinder. 

The mood is set on the bellyaching resonance and crawling walls of the title tune, while 'Through Beaked Fog Horns' is drowned beneath morning mists: lopsided synth drones choke and drift, percussion mutates into inebriated bubbles, and tape-f*cked environmental whirrs create an atmosphere that’s hard to decipher in one take. 

‘Moss Spines Clenched’ follows cryptic stains on peeling flocking, and the icy creep of ‘Tense Branches Waver’ quivers beyond a cracked windowpane. The artist’s voice appears from beneath a cardboard box fort in the imaginary world of ‘Cornered Into Sleat’ as a distant drum beats out a marching thud and traffic squeals are sculpted into chirpy whistles, before ‘Bri Dun’ resolves the eerie tension in an OOBE-like ascent above the dado-rail and across the tracks, watching himself fade into a dissociative bliss.

"All chatter falls quiet…” Salter murmurs thru saturation and white noise. It’s a sound that’s gonna stick with us for a while.

Belgian artist Melawati steps up to Ellum Audio with an arresting debut album, Artimia. Produced with an array of modified machines and modular synths, it is a testament to finding beauty in chaos.

Martijn Ravesloot aka Melawati makes music out of mistakes. He comes from an indie background but has always admired Aphex Twin while playing in bands such as The Subs and working in theatre. He has a love of experimenting with soundwaves that gives rise to his complex, experimental and improvised sounds. He first met Maceo Plex while jamming and that session turned into the track 'Daliah' which dropped on Ellum Audio and was remixed by Tale of Us.

After that, Melawati wrote this most absorbing and beautiful album during the pandemic in a dark studio attic in the heart of Brussels. He set about recording live experiments on analog synths and then deconstructed and reconstructed them into the tracks presented here. The angelic tones of guest vocalist Lisa Jane feature on two tracks though the pair have never met, and Melawati is now set to take his impressive live show to Tomorrowland. His life has changed since writing the album, he now has two children and lives on a farm, but the power of this music where organic and alien worlds intersect remains utterly compelling.

Opener 'I Just Want To Go Walking' pairs a heavenly vocal with celestial chords and a bustling broken beat that strikes a powerful emotional note right from the off. The excellent 'Riddles' showcases more majestic synth work and molten melodies that suspend you in mid-air while 'Slow Pulse' is an intense layering of drones and heavy drum tumbles that again offsets light and dark, tension and release. 'Red Herring' rests with beautifully pensive synth patterns that twinkle, warp and melt before your very ears and 'You And I' takes off on a rubbery groove overlaid with heart-aching keys and shimmering, wordless vocals. 'Somebody' is brain-soothing synth bliss with lush patterns and icy drums that gently unfold to get you in a trance and the gorgeous 'Radiate' then offers a widescreen and cosmic ambient interlude. The heartbroken synths of 'Let Your Love Wash Over Me' speak of the end of a cosmic love affair and 'Violent Thoughts' rebuilds on smooth arps and smeared pads over downtempo drums. The final trio of tracks offers rousing breakbeats on 'New White Noise', uplifting synth catharsis on 'Pain And Pressure' and a melancholic lullaby on 'Stellar'.

Artimia is a beautiful mix of harmony and dissonance, of real emotional power and improvised musical elegance.

From an aspiring b-boy to working with luminaries Billy Porter, Joss Stone, Kimberly Davis and Teni Tinks, The Shapeshifters, Simon Marlin announces the release of his brand-new studio album “Let Loose”.

Wrapped in a defining optimistic mood and colourful palette, “Let Loose” plays with the friction between musical persona and influence, delivering a masterclass in Simon’s flourishing depth of integrity as a producer and admiration to those that exert their enduring influence upon him.

“I'm a facilitator of talent. I'm blessed that over the years I've managed to put a team of people together - as a producer, that's what I do, very much in the old school sense like a Quincy Jones or Gamble & Huff, they’re the guys I try to emulate - and make something magic out of nothing, but do it in a contemporary way. That’s what really floats my boat, and that's what this whole project is about.” Simon Marlin – The Shapeshifters

Across the latest and long-awaited studio album “Let Loose” The Shapeshifters pledge rhythmic allegiance to the golden era disco records and their spellbinding qualities; embracing the tension often found between tradition and future to craft a euphoric, certifiable body of work presented to the devoted audience he deserves. The Shapeshifters exemplify a scene in rude health one that is now switching on an ever-younger fan base, and with Marlin being the beating heart of it it’s easy to see why The Shapeshifters are more in demand in the clubs than ever.

The twelve-track album is illuminated with vocal collaborations including the recently released and debut collaboration with the Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning Billy Porter.

Layers of rushing strings, flares of brass and hedonistic grooves provide refreshing dancefloor power dynamics and deliver a liberating, triumphant and inherently uplifting record.

Taking an impeccably smooth course through disco-infused house, The Shapeshifters continue the rich relationship with Glitterbox and its record label; one that has yielded instant classics that epitomise the label’s ethos for preserving disco’s mission to uplift and empower.

The official retrospective on one of Somalia's most famous and beloved private bands, Iftin, and a companion compilation to our Grammy-nominated "Sweet As Broken Dates". Digitized from cassettes recorded between 1982 and 1987 at the legendary Al-Uruba hotel's secret studio and the jams for the masses performed in the basement of Somalia's national theater. Banaadiri rhythms from Somalia's south, Mogadishu's finest vocalists, Dhaanto reggae-like guitar licks, and smoldering brass blend seamlessly with the sounds of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to form one of rawest, most cosmopolitan eras of music anywhere. Iftin's Mogadishu is where the world's sounds begin and end.

Double LP gatefold with a 12" x 12" poster. Hardcover bookcase CD with 12 page booklet.

You Always Will Be is the new album by artist Dylan Henner.

The follow up to 2020's well received 'The Invention of the Human', the new record touches on themes of nostalgia & longing for times passed; innocence yielding hardships and vice versa; ageing; the soul; life changes; parents and children; loss; love.

Dylan says:

"The piece tells the story of a single life, from birth to death. I've been thinking about the passage of life a lot recently as I lost all four of my grandparents but celebrated the birth of my daughter all within a short period of time. The brevity and preciousness of being really hit me."

The vinyl release consists of a ~ 40 min piece split across two sides, while the digital release features extended versions of the music in that piece, making up 10 individual tracks.

First Word Records is very proud to bring you a brand new album from Takuya Kuroda!

Takuya Kuroda is a highly respected trumpeter and arranger born in Kobe, Japan and based in New York City. 'Midnight Crisp' is Takuya's seventh studio album, entirely self-produced and following 2020's highly acclaimed 'Fly Moon Die Soon', also released on UK label First Word (winner of the Worldwide Award's Label of the Year in 2019). Consisting of six new tracks, this once again sees Takuya displaying his unique hybrid sound, blending soulful jazz, funk, post-bop, fusion and hip hop.

After following the footsteps of his trombonist brother playing in big bands, he relocated to New York to study jazz & contemporary music at The New School in Union Square; a course he graduated from in the mid-noughties. It was here that Takuya met vocalist José James, with whom he worked on the 'Blackmagic' and 'No Beginning No End' projects.

Following graduation, Takuya established himself further in the NYC jazz scene, performing with the likes of Akoya Afrobeat and in recent years with DJ Premier's BADDER band. Premier said "The BADDER Band project was put together by my manager, and an agent I've known since the beginning of my Gang Starr career. He said, 'What if you put a band together that revolved around a trumpet player from Japan named Takuya Kuroda? He's got a hip-hop perspective and respect in the jazz field…"

Takuya Kuroda is already incredibly prolific, releasing six albums in the past decade and fortifying a solid reputation in the global jazz scene. 2011 saw the release of Takuya's independently-produced debut album, 'Edge', followed by 'Bitter and High' the following year and 'Six Aces' on P-Vine in 2013. Takuya was signed to the legendary Blue Note Records in 2014 for his album 'Rising Son', as well as appearing on their 2019 cover versions project, 'Blue Note Voyage'. He released his 5th album 'Zigzagger' on Concord in 2016, which also featured Antibalas on a reimagining of the Donald Byrd classic 'Think Twice'.

His last album was the afore-mentioned 'Fly Moon Die Soon' on First Word, which received plays and support from the likes of Pitchfork, Earmilk, Bandcamp Weekly, Worldwide FM, All About Jazz, Apple Music, Tidal, Stereogum, Treble, Brooklyn Vegan, FIP (France), Tony Minvielle, Jazz FM, Huey Morgan (BBC 6 Music), BBC Radio 3, Novena Carmel, KCRW and tons more DJs, tastemakers, selectors, radio stations, bloggers & magazines.

The new project 'Midnight Crisp' will be released October 21st 2022 on vinyl, CD and digital, worldwide via First Word Records.

Clear Vinyl

Originally released in 2020 on cassette and digitally. more eaze is the nom de plume of Austin, TX mainstay m.maurice, a roving experimentalist who’s explored an astoundingly diverse range of sounds, from drone and computer music to avant-pop and beyond. claire rousay is a San Antonio, TX-based percussionist/composer/sound artist who uses physical objects and their potential sounds as a way to explore queerness, human physicality, and self perception. Together—through a suite of deeply personal aural collages—two of Texas’ most vital and vibrant sonic searchers beg the eternal question: If I Don't Let Myself Be Happy Now Then When?

Although only their debut album together, If I Don’t Let Myself… reveals a profound and fruitful relationship between m and claire. But the symphonic symbiosis goes even deeper still. Outside of musical breakthroughs, the pair helped each other conquer intensely personal changes, with m and claire transitioning and coming out as non-binary and trans, respectively.

As m explains, “to me this record is very much about this process of becoming—trying to reach something and getting there but sometimes not being quite where you want to be but at least getting closer. It’s about feeling alternately empowered and insecure socially as you transition and trying to cope with these conflicting emotions.”

Musically, the album showcases startlingly sincere sets of serrated but sedative situational music. A-side epic Drunk is a sprawling but taut rove of aural duality. Passages of exquisite elegance subtly clash with shimmering shards of sound. Pre-op is a poised and pensive piece of solemn reflection, harrowingly honest and delivered with clarity and composure, while Post-op closes out the set in a wholly uplifting and optimistic flair.

If I Don't Let Myself Be Happy Now Then When? is ultimately about coping during the respective transitioning phase in both of their lives, obliquely blissful and fraught with freedom.

With help from Jerry Seinfeld himself, one of the classics from the mixtape era, Wale’s More About Nothing sees its first official release on CD & Vinyl. Originally released in 2008, the album is nothing short of a masterpiece in his celebrated catalog, and features appearances from then-budding artists Wiz Khalifa & Fat Trel, among others. True fans of the musician will undoubtedly know how crucial this project is to the culture; a Jerry Seinfeld collaboration with Wale finally available for all.

HITGIRL is the 2022 album from the multiplatinum Chicago-born rapper, Dreezy. Exclusively produced by the legendary producer, Hit-Boy, the album showcases Dreezy’s signature confidence and charisma as she spits with fiery sharpness and precision over Hit-Boy’s larger than life beats. Enlisting the likes of Future, Jeremih, INK & Coi Leray, the 10 track album kick starts a new chapter for Dreezy, marked by the single, “They Not Ready.” Speaking about the project, Dreezy states “Hit-Boy pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was thinking about songs differently. When I laid it down, I saw his vision and trusted him. I don’t know the last time this has been done. There aren’t any top producers who are co-signing females like this right now. We are making history for real.”

On their third album, »Rideau«, Swedish trio Tape made their great leap forward. Released in 2005 on Häpna, following two albums of pastoral folk meets electronica, »Rideau« saw the trio of Andreas and Johan Berthling, and Tomas Hallonsten, working with an outside producer, Marcus Schmickler (best known for his post-rock outfit Pluramon). On »Rideau«, Tape’s music opened out considerably, embracing traditional minimalism, and luscious melodicism. Now, seventeen years later, »Rideau« has a new home with Morr Music, who are reissuing the album on vinyl, marking its first appearance on the format, including an extra track.

It’s only logical that »Rideau« should reappear via Morr Music. Like Tape themselves, Morr Music was a significant part of the worldwide gang busy reconciling electronica, pop, and acoustic, group- oriented sound across the 2000s, and »Rideau« sits neatly alongside other releases of similar heritage. And yet, »Rideau« feels contemporary, suggesting the creative discoveries made by the trio have ongoing resonance; their elliptical poetry echoes through recent music from the likes of Tara Clerkin Trio, and Tape’s sometime collaborators, Tenniscoats.

Asked about the album, Johan Berthling recalls, “»Rideau« was a special album for us to make”. While they had previously recorded their albums in rural Sweden, for »Rideau«, the trio decamped to Schmickler’s Piethopraxis Studio in Cologne. The creative space that Schmickler carved out for the group allowed them to explore this new material to its fullest. For his part, Schmickler found himself drawn to Tape’s music –“Their focus was a combination of seemingly timeless folk influences with noisy electronics and field recordings,” he explains. You can hear Schmickler’s influence at an almost molecular level – Tape had never sounded quite so graceful and assured with their compositions. “Marcus really shaped the music, working architecturally to build the form of the pieces,” Berthling recalls.

»Rideau« represents a collective exhalation for Tape, with the trio exploring more involved, longer pieces, which situates them in yet broader musical contexts. There are clear connections with the history of minimalism, for example, via the repeating organ phrase of »Sunrefrain«, and the insistent piano arpeggio of »A Spire«, which builds into a Reich-ian dream song, with sensuous electronics and glinting vibraphone dappling abstract shapes across the song’s stretched canvas.

Reflecting on Tape’s essence, Schmickler isolates their “uncompromised ethos, caring about small details.” This echoes most radically through the twilight environment of »Long Lost Engine«, which sets the listener adrift on impossibly radiant drones, while a gentle, almost Feldman-esque melody plays out over the song’s surface. It’s followed by the reissue’s extra track, Japanese electronica quartet Minamo’s remix of »Roulette«, a connection that would lead to a Minamo/Tape collaborative album, »Birds Of A Feather« (2007).

For now, though, here is the gorgeous, penumbral abstraction of »Rideau«, an album of whispers and clues, quiet moments and grand gestures, reintroduced to a welcoming world.

Repress !

It was in Paris that John Lewis co-led this 1956 date with Sacha Distel, a French guitarist who never became well known in the U.S. but commanded a lot of respect in French jazz circles. The same can be said about the other French players employed on "Afternoon In Paris" -- neither tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen nor bassist Pierre Michelot were huge names in the U.S., although both were well known in European jazz circles. With Lewis on piano, Distel on guitar, Wilen on tenor, Michelot or Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke or Connie Kay on drums, the part-American, part-French group of improvisers provides an above-average bop album that ranges from "Willow Weep For Me", "All The Things You Are", and "I Cover The Waterfront" to Milt Jackson's "Bags' Groove" and Lewis' title song. The big-toned Wilen was only 19 when "Afternoon In Paris" was recorded, but as his lyrical yet hard-swinging solos demonstrate, he matured quickly as a sax man. A mythic LP and one of the best recorded in France!!!

For the 3rd installment on MBMUSIC Ltd. label head MBM delivers a 4 track EP "Marvelous Blue" that comes in digital and vinyl format.

Musical exploration continues, inspired by Lago Maggiore waters with deep and dub techno cuts suited for both listening and club environments.

Opening track A1 "Levitate" let the listener float just above water surface, guiding thru an intense listening experience.

A2 "Abyss" comes with strong kick and reverbereted elements for and immersive soundscape.

B1 "Exhale" lives underwater, with bubbling sounds, lo-fi kick and Deep voice elements.

Release closes with B2 "Blue Vision", that combines dub, tribe, and downtempo breakbeat signatures for a mindfulness ear pleasure.

For Fans Of... Michael Kiwanuka, The Black Keys, Curtis Harding, Black Pumas. Latest 7” from Philly band named Artist to Watch by NPR station WXPN. Features signature Synth & Soul production from Eraserhood Sound. Follows the 2022 7” Money In Your Mouth / Miss Me. Philadelphia band Stereo League has always been about discovering new genres and working with collaborators who can bring unique sensibilities to their music. On their latest 7” Operator, Please / Seasons of Trouble, the band, comprised of childhood friends Alex Savoth and Dan King, continued their fruitful partnership with the synth & soul record label and production crew Eraserhood Sound. Following the success of the group’s 2021 EP Endless Mirage, the band, again under the guidance of EHS, have created two more timeless, soulful songs, each with their own unique personality. The A side “Operator, Please” is a swampy, seductive throwback to 70s soul and funk, evoking the indelible Southern sound from classic labels like Hi and Cat. The flip side “Seasons of Trouble” puts a bowtie on the funk, taking its cues from the classic Philly soul of The Delfonics, The O’Jays, and more. Stereo League, who have been named Artist to Watch by NPR station WXPN, believe this release to be the clearest and best representation of their vision to date, delivering the classic, yet thrilling sound they have been searching for. Tracks: 1. Operator, Please 2. Seasons of Trouble (Explicit)

Primetime Entertainment’ is PET NEEDS’ second studio album and is produced by friend and fan Frank Turner. Simultaneously loud and quiet, raucous party anthems sit alongside thought-provoking personal songs; it’s the sound of a band stepping up a gear to match their catapult on the big stages across the world. Having already toured Europe supporting Frank Turner in the first half of 2022, including Germany, Netherlands, France and more – the touring continues joining Frank on his mammoth 50 States in 50 Days tour of the US throughout June and July and then finally across the UK in September and October. ‘Primetime Entertainment’ is released on 9th September and will be available on CD, LP, digital and cassette. Timeline: Track 1 – ‘Get On The Roof’ – released as a single on 24th June ‘22 "After a gruelling 8 hour drive from a gig in South Devon back to Essex, I was reunited with my wonderful partner Lorna. We threw an old mattress out of our bedroom window onto our roof and clambered out, armed with a rucksack full of the remainder of last night's rider. We listened to cinematic theme tunes as the sun set over the chimneys on the horizon. Come early morning, we rolled back into the house. I grabbed my acoustic guitar, pressed "record" on my phone and sung a dizzy, euphoric stream of consciousness to my voice notes. It felt good, but they always do at that time of night, haha. On second listen in the morning, I felt excited about the tune and started to refine it. As soon as it hit the practice room we turned it into a party banger!"